


let's be alone together

by duelistkingdom



Series: katsuya jounouchi's birthday  2021 [3]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, aged down mai, as in mai is the same age as jonouchi, mai is very much a scorpio
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-18 11:02:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28991124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/duelistkingdom/pseuds/duelistkingdom
Summary: mai wants to make this a good birthday for jonouchi.
Relationships: Jounouchi Katsuya | Joey Wheeler/Kujaku Mai | Mai Valentine, Polarshipping
Series: katsuya jounouchi's birthday  2021 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2126082
Kudos: 4





	let's be alone together

**Author's Note:**

> thank you to ruby for beta'ing this <3

For the most part, Mai had been perfectly content with a life led alone ever since her parents had died when she was only ten. She hadn’t needed anyone, and no one needed her. The rest of her known family at the time had just dumped her off, leaving her to fend for herself. She was fine with that. At least, she had been so sure that was the case for seven years. However, in Duelist Kingdom, Jonouchi had come crashing into her life and that was all it took. He was pure and wonderful, and Mai had felt the urge to run from the affection he gave so freely. She didn’t need to be dragged down by that. Somehow, instead of managing to go back to being alone like always, Jonouchi insisted they were friends. It was only natural for things to change eventually when Jonouchi made the first move.

She’d expected things to come crashing down eventually, but they never did. For the past six months, they had found a comfortable peace with each other. It was a lot to take in every day when she woke up and someone else was there. She’d learned how to make coffee for two people now. She’d make her own, black, and his, sweet like him. She used to make breakfast for herself, and now she scrambled enough eggs for two people. An act of service for someone who had shown her that there was a chance for her to have love and friendship still.

Shizuka was due to come over soon, and that was why Mai had made enough for three this morning. The sunlight filtered into the small one-bedroom apartment that they both shared. She had been so used to paying her own way that it felt strange when Jonouchi insisted on paying half. It had been a huge thing, where she reminded him she’d paid for this on her own before, and he said she didn’t have to anymore. He told her they were a team, and it melted her just a little bit. She knew his birthday was coming up, but he hadn’t said anything about what he wanted. She’d settled in with her newspaper in front of her, not really reading it as she took a long sip of her coffee. Why wouldn’t he mention what he wanted for his birthday?

Mai knew a bit more about Jonouchi now. She knew that his past wasn’t kind to him. She’d always thought that Jonouchi and his friends had it easy, but it seemed she’d been wrong. She’d been wrong about a lot of things. Normally, she’d sit at this table without any pants and just an oversized shirt. However, since Shizuka was coming over, she’d thrown on yoga pants underneath the oversized shirt. “Good morning,” Jonouchi said, stretching as he entered the kitchen with the same puppy dog style grin he always wore. “I see you got up before me again. One of these days, I swear, I’m gonna make breakfast for you. You’ll see.”

“You’ll have to get up earlier to do so, champ,” Mai teased, unable to help the smile from forming across her lips from the fact she knew that would never be the case. Jonouchi had always liked to sleep in and she had no intention of changing that. “Maybe if you got to bed earlier, you wouldn’t keep waking up late.”

“Hey, that’s your fault,” he retorted, and Mai smirked yet again. She couldn’t exactly argue with that claim. Sometimes she definitely intentionally kept him late specifically, so he’d wind up sleeping in. Not that he’d ever complain. “I see you’re dressed. Shizuka comin’ by later?”

“Yeah,” she said as she set her coffee down, folding the newspaper up neatly. “So… your birthday is coming up. You haven’t told me what you want to do. If you’d like, I could see about throwing a party with -”

Jonouchi cut her off quickly. “No party,” he said, shaking his head. “Just… I don’t really celebrate my birthday.”

Mai pursed her lips. Well, she couldn’t exactly fault him for that. She hadn’t really relished a birthday party either. In fact, she’d managed to convince Jonouchi to have a simple night out at the bar for her birthday and spend the rest of the night alone together. Or maybe… Maybe she hadn’t convinced him. Maybe he’d understood more than she’d realized at the time. “Alright,” she said softly. “I just thought it might be nice to celebrate your existence. At the very least, let me make you a special dinner for the night?”

He visibly relaxed and it seemed that she was right on the money. He did understand more than she thought. She then realized he never brought his own family situation to her. Did it have something to do with that? “If you insist,” he said, grabbing a plate of food for himself. “I don’t need anything for my birthday.”

It was a familiar statement when Yui had discovered that Mai was related to them. Yui had fussed upon discovering that Mai’s mom was a sister that she’d lost contact with ages ago. Mai had no idea how to feel upon learning that Yugi and her were cousins. It changed nothing, as far she’d been concerned at the time. It didn’t change that she’d grown up on her own. It didn’t change that there had been no family for her to turn to when her parents died. It wasn’t Yui’s fault that had been the case and it certainly wasn’t Yugi’s either. However, they’d insisted on treating her as family. Insisted on helping. She’d resisted at first but… It’d been nice to have a mom again. Especially one that hurt just as much as she did about the loss of her mother.

“Maybe you don’t need anything,” Mai said as she took a long sip of her coffee. “But this isn’t about what you need. It’s about making your life a little more comfortable.”

This made Jonouchi pause as he set the plate on the table, staring at her with a strange look on his face. His coffee was waiting for him, like always. “Mai, my life is already so comfortable with you,” he said softly, reaching out to take her hand in his. “I don’t need anything else and I don’t want anything else. With you, I feel content.”

Mai blinked. Out of all the ways she expected Jonouchi to handle his birthday, she wasn’t expecting that one. She felt her cheeks heating up and shook her head. “You’re such a sap,” she said, the instinct to lash out never truly going away. “Here I am, trying to plan a nice birthday for you and you have to make it difficult.”

He chuckled as he sat down across from her and Mai scoffed. “Same old Mai,” he teased, digging into his food. “Do what you want. I’d just rather not have a party.”

Once again, Jonouchi did not let her start a fight. It wasn’t that she really wanted a fight, but she did want a reason to leave sometimes. She was constantly scared that Jonouchi really would turn out to be too good to be real. That the new little family she’d managed to find within the Mutous would also be too good to be real. She wanted to tear it apart before it could go away. Jonouchi seemed unwilling to let her do that. A soft knock on the door took Mai out of her thoughts. “I’ll get it,” she said, getting up and ruffling Jonouchi’s hair lightly. “It’s probably your sister.”

It was, indeed, Shizuka. “Mai,” she said, throwing her arms around Mai. Mai wasn’t used to being a big sister. It was a wholly unique experience. It was yet another gift that Jonouchi didn’t seem to realize he’d given her. “It’s so good to see you!”

Mai smiled gently as she lightly petted Shizuka’s hair. “Hi, Shizuka,” she said softly, letting her walls break down just a little bit. If anything else, Shizuka reminded her of another reason to not let herself ruin what she had. She’d seen how hard Jonouchi fought for Shizuka and she wanted to fight for something that hard too. She wanted to be able to say she could want to keep something as safe as Jonouchi wanted to keep Shizuka safe. “I’ve made breakfast. Come on.”

Shizuka had gotten a lot more confident since the first time Mai had met her. “You and Jonouchi both owe me a duel,” she said as she bounded into the kitchen, giving Jonouchi a quick hug before going to get her own plate. “I made my deck better with Yugi’s help! I think I can get further this time!”

“Yeah,” Jonouchi said with that familiar glint in his eyes. “We’ll see. If Yug’ helped, then it’ll definitely be a great deck. How about later today we go out to the park with our Duel Disks and try it out? What do you think, Mai?”

“Sounds good to me.”

It became clear to Mai exactly what she was going to do for Jonouchi’s birthday because of those few rounds of Dueling in the park. It was why she decided that the best thing to do would be to talk to Yugi and Shizuka alone. It was why she claimed that Shizuka and her needed some girls’ time and dropped Jonouchi back off at the apartment. “So, are we going to get Jonouchi’s birthday present?”

“Something like that,” Mai said as she glanced up in the review mirror. Sometimes she thought about the time she starred up in that rearview mirror to see Jonouchi standing in the middle of the street, as if he was going to chase her down. She used to be so certain that her best angle was in the rearview. That missing her was the only way she ever came across as good. She’d be surprised to find that wasn’t the case. “We’re going to go see Yugi. I have an idea on how to make his birthday great.”

Shizuka had a grin on her face. “Are we throwing a party?”

Mai shook her head. “No, but we are going to have a nice hang out,” she said with a teasing grin. It was stretching the definition of ‘not a party’ but there was no way that Jonouchi wouldn’t be happy with hanging out with all his friends. “I think Yugi might agree with me on this too. I was thinking that maybe we could all have a little tournament. I was going to see if Yugi would like to referee it.”

“You aren’t going to invite him to Duel?”

“Honey, if Yugi Duels, there’s no way any of us have a shot,” she joked, well aware that her cousin was more than little tricky to beat. “Besides, the idea is that you actually have a chance of making it past the first round.”

Shizuka nodded, a new fierce look on her face. “I bet I can take Honda on,” she said, looking rather smug. “Make sure my first match up is against him.”

Mai laughed as she imagined the look on Honda’s face when Shizuka beat him at Duel Monsters. She absolutely had her money on Shizuka to win that match. As expected, Yugi was more than willing to referee a friendly competition among friends. He rolled with Mai’s point that him in the match ups wouldn’t be fair to anyone.

“Happy birthday, my love,” Mai said, pouncing on Jonouchi first thing in the morning with a light laugh. “Your friends are coming over later. I thought maybe we could all hang out and Duel here at the apartment. A nice little casual competition.”

Jonouchi’s arm had wrapped around the small of Mai’s waist, a raised brow. “I thought I told you I didn’t want a party.”

“You did,” she said, pressing a quick kiss to his jawline. “But this isn’t a party. It’s a competition. Sorry to say, but I am absolutely going to decimate you in front of all our friends.”

“Oh, they’re our friends now,” he said with a soft smile, his hand moving to cup her face and Mai leaned into his touch. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever heard you call them ‘our’ friends until now. Does that mean you accept that we’re a proper team now?”

Mai hadn’t even realized her slip. She felt her cheeks turn red. “I guess so,” she said softly. “Is that okay?”

Jonouchi pulled her in for a soft, gentle kiss. Her lips parted in a soft gasp as he pulled her closer. His other hand was already on her waist and she could feel a soft smile forming on his lips. “It’s the best birthday gift I could ask for, Mai,” he said, soft as ever. “I like being a team with you.”

Mai smiled, her forehead pressing to Jonouchi’s. “I’m glad to be on your team,” she said. “Happy birthday.”


End file.
